Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Thought experiment

You might have noticed that the response of the U.S. and U.K. governments to the antics (is that the right word?) of Edward Snowden has been astonishingly clumsy and has only gone to reinforce the narrative he wanted to tell -- of governments out of control, undemocratic, and arrogating power. Forcing down the plane of the democratically elected president of a member state of the Organization of American States, with which we are and always have been at peace, based on a completely false assumption, was really, really stupid. Detaining a Brazilian subject who is merely transiting through your airport, for nine hours, on no relevant suspicion, aggressively interrogating him and stealing all his electronic gear, knowing that whatever information it contains already exists in multiple copies all over the world, is totally idiotic.

There's actually more but you get the idea. Why are they doing this? The spookmasters, including Msrs. Obama and Cameron and their underlings, are red in the face with frustration. The whole point of the secret "national security" apparatus is the unaccountable exercise of power. Here are a couple of nobodies who are openly taunting them and laughing in their faces, and they can do nothing about it. Gen. Clapper lies awake at night dreaming of droning Snowden, Assange and Greenwald.

But he can't. They are citizens of anglophone countries, and of European descent. Well okay, Greenwald is a homosexual Jew, but that's not the same thing as an Arab, you can't just murder him at will.

Try this. Change Snowden's name from Edward to Mohammed, put a beard on him, and move him from Russia to Yemen.